Tuesday, December 4, 2012

{Ten for Tuesday} Things That Go! Series: Week #4 - Buses and Boats!

I interrupted the series last week for Giving Tuesday, but am now back on track and making up for it by giving you a post featuring two things that go - buses and boats. I put them together because we did a fun lesson on the letter B that incorporated buses and boats and because there are some buses that are also boats. (These are popular for tours here in the U.S. in many coastal cities, specifically Boston and Santa Barbara is where I have seen them - and learned recently that they have them in Britain as well). I hope you are ready to read/explore/learn/create/play (and more) with buses and boats!1. Reading About Buses and Boats - We have lots of favorite bus and boat books, but Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus by Mo Willems has to be at the top of the list (probably is at the top of everyone's list) and Royal Baloo did a fun letter B bus activity with this book and shares some other bus books.

2. Letter Learning with Buses and Boats - B is for Bus...B is for Boat. At three, Wild Thing is in the early reading/spelling phase and loves going around telling me A is for Apple or D is for Daddy, so I decided to do some fun learning activities with him focused on the letter B with buses and boats (and, of course) other Letter B words. We made our B Box (from a tissue box), cut out things that started with the letter B from some magazines and put them in the box and I cut out other items as well, so that he would have some non B words helping him to learn which words start with B and which do not. I also made Bus and Boat cards for more early literacy practice and he had lots of fun learning to spell bus and boat.

3. Exploring Geography with Buses and Boats - Another reason I wanted to put these two items together is because of the interest Wild Thing has in maps. I asked some friends around the world to send photos of buses. We placed the buses on the map in accordance to where they were from and then sailed our boat from place to place to look at all of the different buses.

6. Big World/Real World Boats and BusesExperiences - Getting out and riding a bus or boat is great fun for kids. Wild Thing and Caterpillar both love it when we take the bus. Wild Thing gets out the bus route and likes to follow it along our journey (again - he loves maps!), and boat rides get the boys really excited. (The great thing about buses is that they are usually quite affordable - one of the cheapest outings I know of for kids). A tip on affordable boat rides is to look for ferries, which often only cost a few dollars and still are lots of fun for kids. The other cool thing about these type of ferries is the opportunity to explore the islands they go to and to do some fun boat watching - see this island outing by Taming the Goblin.

8. Bus and Boat Snacks - We made bus sandwiches and apple-carrot-cheese boats! Creative, fun snack time at its best (and healthy too). I made a few sample boats and then Wild Thing enjoyed making more himself. Caterpillar loved his bear bus!

9. Cardboard Box Buses and Boats (Big World Pretend Play) - Of course, I had to include cardboard boxes because we always include cardboard boxes. This time, NurtureStore has a cool cardboard box boat, and we tried our hand at a cardboard box city bus.

Foil windows!

10. Just Play!We
end every Ten for Tuesday Things That Go this way -- whatever bus or
boat toy or handmade items you have, it is always fun to get out of the
way and just let the kids play -- see where their imaginations take
them.

(P.S. Wild Thing has not really gotten interested in pirates yet, so I did not include any pirate stuff in this round-up, but I
am sharing these pirate play ideas from word play house for those of you with littles who love pirates).